Gabrielle Russon
Daytona Beach city government shut down a local church’s food bank last year. Now, the church is fighting back in federal court, according to a new lawsuit filed last week.
The Seventh Day Baptist Church of Daytona Beach is seeking a temporary injunction and declaratory judgment to reopen the food bank and accused the city government of putting a roadblock in its mission to support homeless people, the elderly and low-income residents.
“No greater need exists than to provide food to the hungry,” the church said in court documents.
The church sued the city last month in Volusia County Circuit Court and then last week the complaint was moved to U.S. District Court’s Orlando division.
Beginning in 2007, the church operated a food bank every Wednesday morning. It wasn’t a secret, the church said, pointing out the church’s goodwill being highlighted in a past Daytona Beach News-Journal story.
When the church moved to a new address in February 2021, it kept the food bank going during the pandemic at a time when many people were out of work or financially struggling.
“When the present pastor took over the church and began the program at the new location on Live Oak Avenue, he and the Church’s president went to City Hall to make sure that they were operating the food bank within the proper guidelines,” the federal lawsuit said.
“They spoke to an individual at the front desk and asked to see someone in zoning. The person stated that the City was aware of the food bank and that it was doing great services and there was nothing more to do.”
In fact, City Commissioner Quanita May showed up at the food bank a year later, offering praise and saying the city wanted to partner with the church, the lawsuit said.
Out of the blue in October, the church received a violation notice.
The issue was that the place of worship operated the food bank in a redeveloped zoning area, the lawsuit said.
Another church 150 yards from the Seventh Day Baptist church also received a violation notice for its food bank, which operated on a different day of the week. The other church, however, was allowed to stay open because it had been grandfathered into a 2011 ordinance banning new food pantries in redevelopment areas, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said the two churches were the target of complaints from one family.
“After seeing a woman camped out in front of our house last week on the sidewalk waiting for a food pantry to open and then talking with the mailman who said he doesn’t deliver on the advertised Food Pantry days because of the line of people waiting for food, it’s difficult for me to see this as redevelopment and it certainly doesn’t inspire any new investment into the area,” an unidentified person wrote in an email to the city in 2022 that had been obtained by the church through a public records request.
People lamented the demise of the Seventh Day Baptist Church’s food bank.
“I can’t believe it happened. It’s so horrible,” Genesis Hernandez, a mother of five who lived nearby, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal last month. “It has helped so many people, so many families. It’s one of those resources in our community we rely on. It was getting people by day to day.”
The church’s attorney and the city did not respond to messages for comment by Florida Politics.
